Moses Merrill Camp and Conference Center

(Camp Moses Merrill)

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Moses and Eliza Merrill in 'Nebraska'
(1833-1840)
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(This article was originally prepared for the June 5, 1976 grand opening celebration of the current Camp Merrill in Linwood, Nebraska.  The author is Florence Degolier.)

To answer this question we must step into our Time Machine, spin the dials backward about 175 degrees to the year 1800 and relax as we emerge into an era quite different in flavor and texture from our own. . .

To begin with, we must forget many facts and facets which are commonplace to the point of oblivion in our awareness.  We are now in a nation much smaller in size and in which there is no such place as 'Nebraska'.  In fact, we have little knowledge of what lies west of the Mississippi River.  Someone has even imprinted across this vast sweep of land upon our map a peculiar legend- "The Great American Desert."   We also know that the trail of Lewis and Clark spanned the entire continent and reached the Pacific Northwest before they returned (in 1806) with glowing reports of teeming beaver streams near the headwaters of the Missouri.

Expansion and migration are in the air.  We find people from our eastern seaboard states moving to the Western Reserve (Ohio area) and Michigan Territory, while the Ohio River has become an important link connecting the East both with the frontier and with St. Louis and Mississippi River traffic.  Trappers and traders have been forming various enterprises for opening up and exploiting a promising fur trade along the Missouri while mountain men are penetrating the West and returning with unbelievable tales. 

Simultaneously, Indians who for centuries occupied their ancestral lands to the east are being pre-empted from all that was beloved and sacred to them.  Unknown to us is the fact that in a short time 'progress' and 'modernization' will have converted, exterminated or bulldozed whatever and whoever lie in their way.  Few of us have the foresight or prescience to interpret these exciting movements in those terms.

To answer our question ("Why is Camp Moses Merrill named 'Camp Moses Merrill'?") we must now make our acquaintance with two young persons who are active participants in this rapidly moving era.

Eliza brought this concern to her pastor with a request for his help in establishing herself among the Indians.  To her profound dismay, Eliza was informed by him that it was most emphatically "not proper for a lone female to go to the heathen with the Gospel".  However, to ease her pain and chagrin he also promised to resolve the dilemma by somehow finding for her a suitable husband.

And so we now meet Moses Merrill, the promising young man to whom Eliza's pastor introduced her in Albany, New York.  Although we know nothing of their courtship (or whether one occurred), we are told that in due process of time their marriage was performed at her brother's house in Ohio, from where they immediately launched themselves upon their lives of teaching and missionary work, staying in the vicinity of Ann Arbor for nearly a year.

Moses, who was sixth of a large family, was born in the state of Maine three years following Eliza's birth.  His father Daniel was not only a minister but also an educator and a member of the legislature.  Moses (who applied himself readily to his studies and became a teacher at an early age) soon felt a strong urge to become a minister.  With an older brother, Thomas, he soon engaged in teaching and preaching.   Their travels took them to Ann Arbor where they established several education institutions, and it was to this same area that Moses and Eliza journeyed following their marriage. 

Some time later after moving to Indiana, a child was born to Moses and Eliza, whom they named Moses Daniel.  Eliza was quite ill as was the baby, requiring care which could only be given in the East.  With great difficulty, Eliza finally managed to find a foster home in Albany for the child, then rejoined Moses in the West.

After the Baptist Mission Board (in Boston in 1832) accepted this young couple as missionary candidates, Moses and Eliza attended the commissioning service along with those soon-to-be-famous first missionaries to India who were celebrated with great fanfare while Moses and Eliza remained eclipsed in the background, complaining to themselves in pained annoyance.

A short time later, Moses and Eliza received their orders to go to the Great Lakes region where in the following spring they would then proceed farther to the head of Lake Superior to establish a mission of their own.  During that winter, however, Eliza nearly died of cholera.  This situation, coupled with squabbling among members of the mission family and increasing competition for converts along with open proselytizing by various denominations whose workers began establishing additional missions nearby, brought the Merrills to a disheartening low in their lives of service.

Moses did his best to minister to them.  Other river boats stopped to bury the dead enroute.  Reaching their final destination at Shawnee Mission (in what is now Kansas) became a feverish obsession to Moses and Eliza who by now were fantasizing it as heaven on earth, or the promised land.  They yearned for the solace of their new home, and fellowship with like-minded persons.

Reality often has a way brutally shaking humans loose from fanciful dreams and it played no favorites for the Merrills.  Because none of Shawnee Mission's personnel had yet been exposed to cholera, the Merrills were met and treated as 'unclean', and virtually quarantined for some time to a dilapidated residence; there on the periphery they remained, aloof and dejected.  Later, more squabbling, more competition for converts and proselytizing, as other denominations arrived.

It was not long, however, until Moses was asked to accompany Isaac McCoy and a party headed for the Oto Indian village some 200 miles up the Missouri for the purpose of signing the Government Treaty of 1833 with the Oto Indians, according to which (among numerous other stipulations) a government school teacher was to be appointed for them.

By the time Moses returned to Shawnee it was October, leaving little time for travel before winter's crunch.  Only the barest necessities were included in their packing, the remainder to be forwarded the following spring by riverboat- a new 'service' for the Upper Missouri, with one voyage per year at its inception.

At Bellevue, the weary travelers were met by Government Agent Major Daugherty, who showed them to the old trading post building which he felt could be utilized by them as dwelling, church and school quarters or the commencement of their ministry.  But what a dwelling it was- crude and unpleasant.  So it was that Moses and Eliza reached the frontier and began settling for the winter with scanty provisions, little help, and physical exhaustion.  Yet the following Sunday found them holding religious services for the few half-breeds and whites who lived around the Agency and Post.  The Merrills continued this practice, adding other services as they were able.

In situating the new mission at a distance from the degrading influences at the Post, Moses also managed to multiply his own difficulties in securing supplies, equipment and building materials.  Nevertheless, Moses and Eliza persevered in their strenuous endeavors.  Farmers, carpenters and a blacksmith and striker (his helper) also established residence in the area.

One wishes for some break in the unremitting seriousness with which Moses and Eliza confront their daily business of living, and which at times seems to border on the pathological.  Their attitude is in contrast to that of numerous contemporaries who have also left journals of their experiences in similar fields of endeavor, and who delightfully include interesting observations and touches of humor. 

Although historical records indicate that a child was born to military personnel at Ft. Atkinson several years earlier, still baby Samuel can be considered the first white child born to permanent settlers in this area. The Merrill's little bundle of pink and white flesh caused such a stir among the dark-skinned Indians that many came for miles to catch a glimpse of him as he cooed and played with his little toes.

Study of available chronicles would seem to indicate that Isaac McCoy with great compassion and some foresight sought the protection and settlement of Indians to their best advantage within this framework, while he simultaneously surveyed their ceded lands for the government. It is doubtful whether the Merrills understood the impact or significance of their own or other contemporary white attitudes towards the Indians, being as compulsively certain as they were that they MUST go to the heathen and change their ways, treating them as ignorant wards while thrusting on them quite well-intentioned but dogmatic and sectarian precepts along with 'Americanized' versions of how to be 'civilized'.

The Otoes, as well as their other nomadic brothers, were literally unprepared and unconstituted to take the full-time demands inseparably linked to agriculture which now was to comprise their way of life, and which regardless of how many treaties they signed in all good faith, they could never fulfill. Participation waned!

Complicating these basic cultural misunderstandings and mystifications was the agitation of angry traders who greatly resented the Merrills' meddling in their lucrative business. Prodded into trickery in the dealings with the Merrills, several influential Indian families began insolently demanding bribes or gifts in return for allowing their children to attend the mission school. Preparation of feasts for chiefs and leaders became an enormous problem for the missionaries, but threats of one kind and another made it dangerous to refuse.

While hurrying past the mission to accomplish this purpose, Moses and Eliza rushed out to stop Itan, pleading with him to turn back from this act of vengeance, for they honored and respected this intelligent man and wished him to display the Christian virtues to which he had been exposed.

Their passionate entreaties were of no avail, for he passed rapidly on and shortly engaged in a shooting melee which resulted in his own death and the death and injury of others. From this time on, the Oto tribe fell into further disarray by choosing sides for either their fallen chief or for the disloyal braves.

And, without regard for himself or the weather, Moses often departed on horseback with little preparation for Shawnee Mission or Ft. Leavenworth some 200 miles away in order to take portions of scripture and hymns to be printed on the newly arrived press at Shawnee, or to execute some matter of business he at times impulsively thought he should handle in his own way. His exposure at these times and the poor food fed him especially while on hunts, began to take their effect in the decline of his health. Moses finally conceded that he needed medical attention, for he could no longer ignore his condition.  Thus it was that he made his way to Ft. Leavenworth in May of 1839 to be treated for tuberculosis.

Indian belligerence and harassment had increased to an alarming degree, but with Moses' departure, Eliza and Samuel were constantly subjected to threats on their lives. Other neighboring whites began leaving until Eliza and Samuel were virtually alone. At one point, she repaired to the loft with Samuel well hidden and a gun cocked at her side, which she had finally vowed to use in case of self-defense, praying all the while for strength and faith to endure until Moses might return, torn between her urgent desire to flee for her life and her religious conviction that she must be as brave as Mrs. Judson in India and remain there for the sake of the Gospel.

All that remains for us today as a physical remembrance of the arduous labors and difficulties experienced by Moses and Eliza is a very large stone fireplace with a tall chimney reaching to the sky as it stands starkly alone near cottonwood trees said to have been planted by the Merrills. The land slopes upward toward it from the Platte River which can be seen a short distance to the south. All else has disappeared without leaving a trace.

Several attempts have been made through the years to preserve the chimney and to restore the Mission.  Interest once more has been aroused for preserving this prime historical site. Whether the necessary interest and funds can be secured remains to be seen.

In the meantime, we can conclude this brief narration by answering our original question ("Why is Camp Moses Merrill named 'Camp Moses Merrill'?") with the following:

"Camp Moses Merrill is named Camp Moses Merrill since Nebraska Baptists care to express their appreciation for and commemoration of the lives and labors of Moses and Eliza Merrill, who were this state's first school teachers (by government contract) and resident missionaries.  For this purpose, and to this end, will these spacious acres bear their name."